The efficient utilization of information and communication has been the key to success of many business ventures. To obtain a competitive edge many companies have resorted to technology to disseminate, process and communicate information. For example, computers and fax machines have made possible almost instantaneous correspondence between two companies in which a business agreement could be expeditiously reached. The advent of the Internet has brought about new business opportunities that are categorically referred to as electronic commerce (e-commerce). E-commerce comes in a variety of forms such as business-to-business commerce (B2B commerce), business-to-customer commerce (B2C commerce) and customer-to-customer commerce (C2C commerce). E-commerce uses various business models such as providing a service in return for an advertising space on the customer's display or an online catalog that also allows for online entry of orders.
A previous problem concerning the Internet has been that instant access and mobility were substantially limited because, typically access to the Internet was performed using a computer that was tethered to a telephone line. For this and other reasons, many devices have been developed such as a laptop computer with a wireless modem, wireless Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), handheld Personal Computer (PC) with wireless capability and mobile phone with Internet access capability. Some of these devices may access the Internet using Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). Still there are other mobile phones that uses Simple Messaging Service (SMS) to take advantage of e-commerce.
E-commerce has also brought about applications that uses intelligent agents. Intelligent agents may be considered to be software-implemented personal assistants with authority delegated from their users. Each agent is a computer program that, in appropriate circumstances, stimulates a human relationship by performing something for a person that another person may otherwise do. One application that intelligent agents may perform are buying and selling goods and services on behalf of users. An intelligent agent may be configured to seek out other parties such as human users, computer systems, or other agents to conduct negotiations on behalf of their owners, even entering into commercial transactions.
Negotiation is a form of decision-making where two or more parties jointly search a space of possible solutions with goal of reaching a consensus. A negotiation may be viewed as competitive or cooperative. A competitive negotiation may be viewed as a decision-making process that resolves a conflict involving two or mote parties over a mutually exclusive goal. A cooperative negotiation, on the other hand, may be viewed as a decision-making process that resolves a conflict involving two or more parties over multiple interdependent, but non-mutually exclusive goals.
When establishing a partner for negotiation an intelligent agent should be able to determine what initial offers should be sent out, what is the range of acceptable agreements, what counter offers should be generated, when an agreement is reached and when negotiation should be abandoned. All these may be part of a reasoning model of an intelligent agent. However, there is room for improvements when designing intelligent agents with negotiation capabilities, to enable them to operate reliably, efficiently and profitably on behalf of their clients. This is especially important in competitive negotiations.